Wholly Genes Newsletter, 15 October 2009, Issue 2009-9

================================================== Wholly Genes Newsletter 15 October 2009 Issue 2009, Number 9==================================================You received this newsletter subscription by yourown request. To unsubscribe, see the end of thenewsletter.

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In this issue:

o Monthly Special - 20% offo We're Moving!o Polishing Output from Your TMG Datao GenBridge is solving problems of data communicationo New Data CDs from the Great Britaino New Data CDs from the Irelando TMG Companion Productso Wholly Genes online chato How to reach us

=== Monthly Special - 20% off ==========================

For a limited time, this popular title is 20% off at WhollyGenes.com:

Ellery Bicknell Crane, HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS AND GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, (1907) 2008.$24.95 http://www.ArchiveCD...b...WS&p=US0381These four volumes collect more than a thousand genealogical and biographical sketches of early twentieth-century residents of Worcester County, Massachusetts. The compilations contain information on more than a hundred thousand individuals of the first three hundred years of New England settlement.

As with similar volumes published a century and more ago, many of the sketches in this set focus on a single prominent individual, but in an unusual approach, a large number of the accounts examine many lines of descent from a single immigrant, and so provide information on many individuals alive at the time of publication.

As an example, fifteen pages are devoted to the descendants of Thomas Green, who had settled in Malden, Massachusetts, by the middle of the seventeenth century. The sketch gives much detail on each generation of the descent of at least seven prominent men of the years around 1900, some of Worcester County and some living as far away as Chicago and St. Louis.

At each generation of each descent, the compiler has given details not just on the person in the line of descent, but on spouses and siblings, so that hundreds of persons are covered by each account. As with other books of this type, the information given on those living in the middle and late nineteenth century should be reliable, and in many cases may not be available elsewhere.

The volumes are illustrated with hundreds of engraved portraits of some of the men and women covered by the sketches.

=== We're Moving! ===================================

Effective this month, the mailing address for Wholly Genes is changing. Like many other people around the world, our development and support staff has been increasingly taking advantage of technology which allows them to effectively "telecommute" (i.e., work from home by computer). As a result, our office space requirements are greatly reduced so we're moving a few centralized functions (accounting and shipping) into the smaller space that we previously occupied about a mile down the road. The new address is shown at the end of this newsletter.

Aside from some possible temporary disruptions to shipping over the next two weeks, we do not expect this change to have any noticeable effect on you. Our web site, support telephone, fax number, and business hours remain unchanged.

=== Polishing Output From Your TMG Data =================

Users interested in creating more polished output from the data they have recorded in TMG may find several articles on Terry’s TMG Tips website useful. Created by Terry Reigel, TMG beta tester and author, the website contains over 100 articles on topics ranging from basic concepts to some of TMG’s most advanced features. The main page of the site is at http://tmg.reigelridge.com/ from where users can locate articles of interest with a Table of Contents listing major topics, a full Alphabetical Index, or a full-site Search function.

Those wishing to create more polished narratives, whether in reports created by TMG or in websites produced by the TMG companion program Second Site, will find a several helpful articles. The key to producing quality narratives is understanding TMG’s Sentence Structures, and several articles provide tutorials and advice, with helpful screenshots, to help users make best use of this feature. To access them, look for the “Customizing Tags” in the Table of Contents.

If wall charts are your thing, there are several articles with tips describing how to use TMG’s powerful tools for making and editing Box Charts. There are suggestions on how to set options to produce more useful charts, as well as using TMG’s Visual Chartform editing tools to create truly custom charts. To access these articles look for “Creating Wall Charts” in the Table of Contents.

A wide variety of websites can easily be created from your TMG data with Second Site, a program written by John Cardinal. The resulting websites can be copied to CDs and distributed privately, or placed on the Internet for public viewing. A new section of Terry’s website contains nearly 20 articles on the use of this exciting adjunct to TMG, covering topics ranging from the easy steps for creating a basic website to some quite advanced techniques. To access this section, look for “Using Second Site to Share Your Data” on the Table of Contents, or choose “Second Site Section” on the main page menu.

However you prefer to share your TMG data with others, Terry’s TMG Tips articles can help you put present the results of your hard work more professionally.

=== GenBridge is solving problems of data communication =======

GenBridge is the genealogical data import technology developed by Wholly Genes, Inc. Users of The Master Genealogist (TMG) have long known GenBridge to be the most effective way to import data from other major genealogical software programs. But you may not know that GenBridge is also used by Family Tree Maker, Pocket Genealogist, and a variety of other developers (and is in the process of being implemented by still others) to facilitate the transfer of genealogical data.

Genealogical software has taken great strides in recent years, led in many respects by the examples set by The Master Genealogist. But nearly 20 years after TMG supported non-standard family structures, custom event/relationship/name types, witnessed events, source templates, custom sentence structures, certainty assessments, research tasks, and multimedia, those data types are commonly corrupted or completely lost by a GEDCOM transfer. While some developers argue that the problems are in the various software implementations, most of these data types are not supported by GEDCOM at all or are so loosely defined by the "standard" as to defy their use. For instance, photos, sound, and video are technically supported by GEDCOM but those specifications are so ambiguous and impractical that we don't know of any developer who uses them (as if embedding dozens of JPG files in a GEDCOM file was practical on its face).

Even more "standard" data types like the precedence of a person's multiple names or the relative birth order among his siblings (especially when some birth dates are unknown) often don't survive a GEDCOM transfer intact. For that matter, GEDCOM transfers frequently mangle incomplete/ambiguous dates, obscure the researcher's knowledge about a place (is "Washington" a city or state?), insert extraneous carriage returns into long notes, and disaggregate sources (is this "Johnson Family Bible" the same as that "Johnson Family Bible"?), among many other problems.

But come on -- how important are little things like names, dates, places, notes, and sources to genealogists, anyway?? Given the ongoing widespread acceptance of GEDCOM, even as genealogical software has long outgrown it, this is not a rhetorical question. What hope do we have that we will ever be able to use GEDCOM to faithfully transfer more advanced data types like the researcher's theories and rationale and new technologies like DNA?

But evaluations of GEDCOM usually miss the most insideous of its problems: the exporting researcher doesn't know that his data has been mangled and the importing researcher doesn't either! If you send a GEDCOM file to Cousin Mary, will she know which names, dates, places, and sources, have been mangled by the transfer? Will she know that, for a certain father and mother in your data, her importing program inferred a marriage even though you didn't record one? Will she realize how much other important data (like photos) you have collected? Probably not. Worse, she may publish your data, even though neither of you realize how badly it has been corrupted. And if she sends the data to another researcher, it will get mangled yet again!

Are you now reconsidering whether GEDCOM is the best way to archive your data for future generations?

Here again the argument usually shifts to who is to blame: the exporting program, the importing program, or GEDCOM itself -- but does it really matter? 20 years later, the problems are persistent and the LDS Church has indicated that the GEDCOM specifications have been updated for the last time. So who really expects GEDCOM transfers to improve in the next 20 years?

So developers are increasingly turning to GenBridge which reviewers like Dick Eastman have described as "a system that is much better than GEDCOM." In fact, GenBridge is not so much a "system" as a collection of tools which can be licensed by any developer and integrated into their software.

GenBridge is strictly an import technology, however. That is, your use of GenBridge-enabled software like TMG allows you to import data FROM other programs but it does not help you to transfer your data TO those other programs unless they are also GenBridge-enabled. If you or your family members use genealogy software that does not take advantage of GenBridge, you might encourage those vendors to solve your data sharing problems by integrating it (http://www.whollygen...m/genbridge.htm).

GenBridge is also used in a variety of private or non-profit projects. For instance, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes Remembrance Authority (or "Yad Vashem") uses GenBridge in its efforts to collect records of the Jewish people during the Holocaust by allowing researchers to submit their native genealogical data files to the project without any risk of manipulation through GEDCOM. For more information about the project, see http://www.activepdf...s/yadvashem.pdf or go directly to http://www.yadvashem.org .

=== New Data CDs from the Great Britain ===================

The following data CDs from Great Britain are now available from WhollyGenes.com:

KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF OXFORDSHIRE, 1924 (WITH MAP).$23.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE5021Republished here on full-searchable CD-Rom is the 11th edition of Kelly's Directory of Oxfordshire, which was published in 1924. Containing some 550 printed pages, Kelly's Directory, as the then editor, A. Lindsay Kelly correctly noted, was primarily a directory, but also served as the gazetteer for every county for which Kelly's Directory was published, and this Oxfordshire edition is no exception. Importantly this edition contains the detailed county map included with the book. (more...)

DON MANOEL GONZALES, LONDON IN 1731.$17.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE5023"London in 1731: Containing a Description of the City of London, both in Regard to its Extent, Buildings, Government, Trade, etc.", is a curious publication and was first brought to press in 1745 as part of the 'Harleian Collection', consisting of two volumes entitled 'Voyage to Great Britain, Containing an Account of England and Scotland' and 'A Collection of Voyages & Travels, compiled from the Library of the Earl of Oxford'. London in 1731 supposedly written by one Don Manoel Gonzales, a literary pseudonym, which has engaged some considerable investigation, with some pointing to Daniel Defoe as the publication's original author. (more...)

THE BRISTOL POLL BOOK, 1837.$18.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE5024Printed and published in Bristol in 1837 by John Wansborough, The Bristol Poll Book's full and descriptive title reads as follows: "The Bristol Poll Book, being a list of the Householders, Freeholders, and Freemen, who voted in the General Election, for Members to Serve in Parliament, for the City and County of Bristol, which took place, July 24th 1837. Before Thomas Kington, Esq. Sheriff." (more...)

THE REGISTERS OF THE PARISH CHURCH OF CARTMEL IN THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER; CHRISTENINGS, BURIALS AND WEDDINGS, 1559-1661.$17.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE5025The Registers of the Parish Church of Cartmel in the County of Lancaster. Christenings, Burials & Weddings, 1559-1661, was published by the Lancashire Register Society from transcriptions taken by Henry Brierley in 1907. According to the extremely perfunctory introduction the St. Mary's Priory Church, Cartmel, was the most interesting and beautiful in Lancaster, a photograph of the St. Mary's does nothing to contradict this. (more...)

KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 1894.$23.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE5026Republished here on full-searchable CD-Rom is Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire, which was published in 1894. Containing some 616 printed pages, Kelly's Directory, as the then editor, A. Lindsay Kelly correctly noted, was primarily a directory, but also served as the gazetteer for every county for which Kelly's Directory was published, and this Gloucestershire edition is no exception. (more...)

=== New Data CDs from Ireland ==========================

The following data CDs from Ireland are now available from WhollyGenes.com:

REPORT OF THE LABOUR COMMISSION TO IRELAND 1921.$17.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE0052Published in 1921 by the English Parliamentary Labour Party, the Report of the Labour Commission to Ireland, although a relatively brief publication of just 124 pages, is a thoroughly fascinating, if sometimes a little biased, account of the War of Independence in Ireland, especially the conduct of the British Army and Auxiliary Forces. (more...)

THE AMERICAN COMMISSION ON CONDITIONS IN IRELAND, EVIDENCE ON CONDITIONS IN IRELAND.$23.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE0053This publication is a collection of the evidences used in "The Interim Report for the American Commission on Conditions in Ireland" 1921, and contains the oral and written testimonies from witnesses in Ireland dating from the end of 1920 and beginning of 1921. The evidence collected by Commission was eventually presented to its parent body, the American Committee of 150 on Ireland, which was published under the title Evidence on Conditions in Ireland. (more...)

REPORT BY THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON PAWN BROOKING IN IRELAND, TOGETHER WITH MINUTES OF EVIDENCE, AN APPENDIX AND AN INDEX, 1838.$11.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE0054Republished here is the Report by the Select Committee on Pawnbroking in Ireland; Together with the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index, which was first published in Dublin by Alexander Thom in 1838. The inquiry into pawnbroking in Ireland came out of concerns being aired in the national press that pawnbrokers in general were charging extortionate and illegal rates of interest for monies lent by them on amounts of two shillings and less and this had brought the entire trade into disrepute. However, it was also acknowledged that the pawnbrokers of Ireland, especially those in Dublin, were also being extorted by the very body that was supposedly set-up to regulate and protect their interests: the Marshal of Dublin. (more...)

HENRY JONES FORD, THE SCOTCH IRISH IN AMERICA, 1915.$23.95 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE0056The Scotch-Irish in America was first published by Princeton University Press in 1915 and was written by Henry Jones Ford, Professor of Politics at the University. Containing some 607 printed pages Ford's history of the Scots-Irish, although almost a century old, is still seen by many as the seminal introduction both to the plantation of Ulster and the exodus of the Scots-Irish from Ulster to America.

JOHN REVANS, THE EVILS OF THE STATE OF IRELAND; THEIR CAUSES AND THEIR REMEDY - A POOR LAW, 1837.$15.49 http://www.WhollyGen...f...WS&p=IE0057Published in London in 1837 by J. Hatchard & Son, John Revans' Evils of the State of Ireland; their Causes and Remedy - A Poor Law, a publication that witnesses a second edition, before the eventual passing of the 1838 Poor Law Act and its implementation in Ireland. Containing some 153 printed pages and republished here on fully-searchable CD-Rom, Evils of the State of Ireland represented one of the more benign paths of social policy that could have been adopted by the British Government and implemented in Ireland. (more...)

=== TMG Companion Products ==========================

The following companion products which were developed for TMG users like you:

The next online chat with Wholly Genes will be Saturday, 28 November 2009, at 2pm and again at 11pm Eastern Time. Don't miss this opportunity to "talk" online with Wholly Genes representatives, as well as with other TMG users around the world.

Remember that the Wholly Genes chat room is available to you at any time. Just go to http://www.WhollyGenes.com and click on Public Chat in the Support menu. When you see the security warning, click on <Grant this session> or <Grant always>. Then be patient because it could take 30 seconds or more (especially on a dial-up connection) to load the necessary chat tools. When prompted, simply enter a chat nickname and then click on Connect. That's all there is to it. We hope to see you there!